The Manager in his press conference said that Anguissa is the only one ruled out. Huddersfield are without captain Tommy Smith with a hamstring and more importantly, Aaron Mooy with a long term ligament problem. One to watch nonetheless is long man - throw ins and shots - Phillip Billing. And no doubting they'll be up for the battle, not least because their 3 games over the next week are against current strugglers. Us (away), Burnley (home) and Cardiff (away). We of course are in a similar boat with them (home) and Burnley (away) in the same period (the Arsenal (away) being snucked in between those games). The Manager has said that he's found the right formation, for now, but in his presser he alluded to changes; "It’s important that the coach has a choice to change players and give a chance to everybody". You never know with the 'Tinkerman' but this appears to be whether Schurrle or Sessegnon gets the starting nod. Schurrle does cover a lot of ground but - my view - he's persistently a yard off the ball and contributes little. Also, just going on the Wolves game, he is physically flimsy and loses the ball every time when tackled - a situation which Ranieri attributes to Sessegnon and not him. There we have to disagree Boss! Up front, Kamara is proving his worth by occupying defenders and meaning they can't gang up on Mitrovic. Less certain is the role of Cairney. Social media had a field day on his 20 minute,out of position performance against Wolves. In a straight choice between him and Seri in the middle, Ranieri seems to favour the "hold my ground but not actually do anything" Seri. Beg to differ again Boss! So, the predicted starting line up is - .........................Rico................ .............Odoi..Mawson..Ream.. Christie.......................................Bryan.. ..................Chambers..Seri.. .....Kamara.......Mitrovic....Sessegnon...
Mine too Cottager and agree with you comments on Schurrle, he has got the odd goal to his credit but little else of real note.
Cottager, you make very sensible points which I also agree with. The talk of a Cairney/Shelvey swap is a worry. Cairney has been good for Fulham and I believe he is Premiership quality. I'm nervous of a destruction of the core team that got us to the Premiership. Seri has been ok but he is no better than Cairney. Tomorrow's game is vital, a proverbial 6 pointer even at this stage of the season. Can't argue with Cottager's team but as you say you can never quite tell with Ranieri. Huddersfield played quite well I thought against Man U and they know the importance of this game too. So looking forward to it !!
Yup. His PR is excellent on social media and in interacting with fans before matches. Unfortunately during games he hasn't been a 'Pirate'.
The man we have in charge today is Kevin Friend. Kevin didn't quite get it right there, it was 4-2 the last time we saw him - in the debacle at Cardiff. He booked 6 that day; Chambers, McDonald and Johansen for us. The Bristol City supporter is certainly racking up the yellows this year. In his 18 games so far he's given a whacking 76 yellows. Only 1 red however.
A massive win and a clean sheet. On the downside, AK has killed his future with FFC have heard what our manager thought of his disrespect for him, the club and fans. I've always liked him but certainly not for his bullishness to his team mates, captain and all else FFC today.
Indeed 2whites. Selfish and childish by AK, although didn't see the point in booing everything he did afterwards. Suspect all that will now happen is a bollocking and a fine, followed by a cuddle. Mind you, one red face saved (two if you count Cap'n Cairney bottling it) thanks to the running and intelligence of Ryan Sessegnon.
Great day for me, Rangers win the old firm derby and Fulham get a last minute winner against relegation rivals. Been a season of ups and downs with both my teams so im definitely going to enjoy today while I can.
Out of interest to anyone who was at the game or watched it, how did Vietto play while he was on? I thought he would be a good player for us this season but doesn't really seem to have hit the heights so far
The first half was so awful it's difficult to assess him. He spent most of his time in 'no mans land' in the first third of their half; not really helping our outnumbered midfield nor helping Mitro close down their back four. He's the best crosser of the ball we have though and had a few decent efforts from the left side yesterday - particularly one to Christie at the far post.
What an important win yesterday. First half was a bit boring as we happily allowed them the ball in the hope of a counter attack.Second half the combination of Cairney moving back to his most natural position in replacement fro Seri who had picked up a yellow card and the introduction of Kamara changed the game. The penalty activities was a fiasco, totally embarrassing, and I think most of knew that he was going to miss it after all the messing around. Lots of boos followed which I think we need to nip in the bud. I may not be forgotten but we need Kamara at the moment. I think he will have learnt a good lesson from all of this but it was horrible to watch. Then our goal, the break we had been waiting for all game - Cairney to Sessegnon, fantastic ball then to Mitro and calmly taking it first time through the goalie's legs and into the net. What scenes, what a result. The Kamara situation needs addressing sensibly. If they go to MacDonald after this win he should should be given a Happy Meal but I'd start him against Arsenal and let him make things up with the team.
I'm all for this and hopefully with a nights sleep AK realises his mistake and apologies and the Tinkerman will give a reprieve. Ranieri was very annoyed yesterday and rightly so. We are better with AK in the squad and playing his part, but he must see the team and club are the priority.
Re FFabio's question on Vietto - I like him. Partly because he was a beast on Football Manager some time back, partly based on little I've seen of him. He is quite scrappy and looks a bit less lightweight on the ball than Sess (he is a few years older). He's got a trick or two and does try to tackle Personally I would have taken Cairney off instead of Vietto to accommodate Sess (with Vietto playing as offensive mid) because although Vietto doesn't have the passing range or nous of Cairney, I think he offers more defensively. I really like Cairney, but he isn't a tackler and he simply isn't good enough in the PL to play an attacking only role, not with Seri in the same team, he needs to really work on his defensive positioning and contribution - as do a lot of players. On that note, where has Seri gone? Convinced there has been a swap somewhere down the line because it's a different player on the pitch to what I remember in Sep. Finally on to AK, the rage inside me would have subbed him off there and then, even though we had no subs left and it would have meant going down to 10 men. It was a shambles, Mitro kiss on the head looked a nice touch but it was the kiss of death, didn't think he was going to score before but once Mitro had planted one on him and got the crowd cheering, clearly showing him to be the fans favourite, was almost sure he was going to crumble under pressure he put on himself. In hours and day after I would have said banish him from squad, don't want to see him play again but with time I'm thinking this could be a good thing for AK, and.Mitro - if he will let him - could be a great influence on him in terms of discipline and mental strength because I understand he used to have the same red streak. If he can learn from this, and if it helps him to control himself on the pitch (cutting out ridiculous dives and childlike behaviour) then he is a genuinely good prospect in terms of his raw ability and the different kind of threat he poses - he is the ultimate disruptor, sadly turned it on his own team, but I think there is a way back in for him and hope he takes chance now to improve.
